Spring 1999 CS302 Assignment #8

1. Design and justify a grading policy for your course.

There are ten weeks in the course, and each week there is an assignment
due. Each assignment counts for the same amount, ten points. The final project
is a multiple-week assignment. We've found that in order to prevent students
from waiting until the last week to start the project, it's important to
set intermediate deadlines for them. Thus, these deadlines will be graded
as though they were the homework for that week. The finished final project
is worth two homeworks. There is a midterm and a final exam; the midterm
is worth one homework and the final is worth two homeworks. Each homework
is worth 10 points, so we have a total of 10*10 (homeworks) + 20 (final
project) + 10 (midterm) + 20 (final exam) = 150 points out of which the
grade will be based. Each homework will be graded on the following scale:

Grade

Comment for student (and for professor)

1-5

Failing for one reason or another (usually because it wasn't done)

6

Some serious problems, but adequate for passing. You probably missed the
point of the assignment (e.g. Did you have a story?), but I'll take it.

7

Good assignment. A little below average, but you had some good ideas.

8

Very good. You probably had two or three small problems, though.

9

Almost perfect. You probably missed one small point, but overall I was quite
happy with what you turned in.

10

Perfect assignment. You completely understood what was necessary and executed
it to perfection.

11

Above and beyond the call of the assignment. One of the best in the class
this year.

12

One of the best I've ever ever seen. Wow wow and wow. Write home to mom.

The final grade will be determined from a scale which looks very similar
to that proposed by McKeachie (1986) as mentioned by Davis in "Tools
for Teaching":

In particular, defend the following:

your choice between grading on a curve and grading
on an absolute standard;

The grades will be based on an absolute standard. This gives the advantage
of being fair to previous classes who also had to measure up to the same
standard. Curve-based grading is useful if there are factors which would
make the absolute standard unfair. For example, if it is the professor's
first year, it may take some time to understand what the students are capable
of. Or some years there may be hardships the students must overcome (new
software, fewer computers) or perhaps even positive features (say, a higher-end
animation program they have access to) that would change their grades relative
to other years.

Since this course has been taught before and the software / equiptment
is the same, the projects and grades of past years can serve as a good model
for an absolute standard for the students this year.

the relative weights you assign to homework, labs
(if any), exams, and other activities;

The uniformity of the assignments' weight is meant to imply that all
of the material throughout the course is of equal value, from the early
discussions of the history of animation to the final discussions of the
technical details of perspective transformations. The final project is a
multiple-week (four weeks in total) assignment, but the students have had
chunks of it graded already (models, sounds, rough animations, etc) so the
final result is only worth two homeworks, rather than one large four-equivalent-homework
grade. The weight of the exams is de-emphasized (the final is only worth
two homeworks, the midterm one) because this course is more about teaching
the students how to animate (how to design / model / light / render) than
strictly abstract concepts. Their homework is the best measure of the skills
we're trying to impart. However, there are still concepts they need to understand,
and this is where the exams come in.

your use of extra credit assignments or the "best
M out of N scores";

There are no extra credit assignments or "best M out of N scores"
here, although the students can earn extra credit (up to 12 out of 10 per
assignment) for doing really great work. The justification here is the need
for some way to compensate students who clearly do work deserving of special
merit. The fact that the grades are on an absolute scale means these extra
credit points hurt no one.

your evaluation of assignments or exams done in partnership.

Most of the assignments are done with partners; exams are completed independently.
Partners receive the same credit for an assignment, and students are not
allowed to work individually (machine shortage). Some component of the final
project grade will be chosen by the students. For example, the students
will independently be asked the following:

If you had one hundred extra bonus points to give to the other people
in your team (not yourself) on the basis of how hard they worked on the
assignment and deserved credit for doing more than their share of the work,
how would you divide the points? Recall that the grades for this semester
are on an absolute scale, so giving your teammates points does not affect
your grade. Use this to reward the person(s) on your team who really deserve
some extra credit.

The results from this question will be used to distribute a nominal
amount of the points for the final project around.

2. Explain how you would decide a course grade for a student near a
borderline in your grading scale, e.g. the best of the B+ students. If you
would decide a borderline grade differently for different borderlines or
for different distributions of scores comprising the final score total (say,
someone doing very well on exams with a low homework score verses someone
with the opposite distribution), explain how you would do so and defend
your policy.

No student will ever be pulled below a borderline for any reason. All
borderlines are treated equally. Students within a point or two below the
borderline will be raised above the border if:

The student has shown growth and has higher scores on later assignments
/ exams than on earlier ones. No distinction other than time is used for
determining border cases (so we don't look at distributions, since that
can altered by someone's native ability [or lack of ability] as a test-taker).

The student is one who has contributed significantly to group critiques.

The student is unique; we only want to raise select cases if they're
unique. Otherwise you have students asking why they scored the same as
another student but didn't have the same grade - a justifiable complaint.

The student has had good attendance and the professor at no time felt
the student was "blowing off" the class.

The student was not judged a "slacker" in their final project
evaluation by their teammates.